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Could one day cricket be phased out?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: An underwhelming start to the international one day cricket series has led some to question whether the format will be scrapped.

The quicker and more frenetic Twenty20 format is growing in prominence as the sportís administrators try to appeal to families and young children.

It all coincides with crucial television rights negotiations which provide the game's key funding.

Tom Nightingale reports.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: The top cricket writer in Sydney's biggest newspaper has written that today's one day match against Sri Lanka is the first for the Australian men's team this summer.

That's not true and the writer, Malcolm Conn knows it. But it illustrates a point he and others have been making - that in the two other matches, Australia's team has been supposedly full of second-choice selections.

Neil Maxwell is a long-time manager of cricketers including Brett Lee and Michael Hussey.

NEIL MAXWELL: So I understand there was 20,000-odd in Melbourne. A good chunk of those were Sri Lankans, local Sri Lankans and I think there was 15,000 in Adelaide but the ground was undergoing renovations and I think there were 3,000 paying public out of that 15,000. The rest were members.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Cricket Australia says it's mostly happy with the one day crowds so far, with Melbourne's numbers slightly below expectations and the Adelaide crowd a public sell-out.

And it says about 950,000 people on average were watching the first two one day matches on television.

While the one day cricket is a big broadcast event, the domestic Big Bash Twenty20 league is on pay TV.

Gideon Haigh is a cricket writer and historian.

GIDEON HAIGH: In all the talk about new markets just pitching it to new demographics, it forgot what it's chief virtue is, which is making cricket accessible to people who like cricket but can't actually find the time to go to a full day of cricket and I actually think that the best crowds this season have been of people who have an attraction to the game anyway.

It is not people who are trying cricket out for the first time, its people who have an attachment to the game and have been thwarted in their opportunities to gratify it.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: But Cricket Australia says nearly one in four people at Twenty20 Big Bash matches were at their first game of cricket.

The bright lights and big hits of Twenty20 cricket are deliberate. A few years ago, Cricket Australia research showed the sport wasn't on the radar of children as it was for those of past generations.

It prompted a massive effort to fund and promote the Twenty20 format, and target families.

Before Christmas, the crowds this summer were slightly down but cricket bosses believe that's because the games weren't timed well enough with school holidays.

But while some in Australia have questioned one day cricket's future, the player manager Neil Maxwell says it's a very different story in the game's most financially important region.

JIM MAXWELL: The money is going to come from Twenty20, it is going to come from the IPL (Indian Premier League).

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Neil Maxwell knows Indian cricket well, because he manages Brett Lee who's extremely popular on the subcontinent.

JIM MAXWELL: And unfortunately I think it is the test matches that will suffer because at the moment the crowds aren't coming but at the same time it still rates reasonably well on television. But the first sign really for me is if people aren't attending matches, you've got to have that. That underpins the sport and it makes for a good broadcast product.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Tomorrow night, the Perth Scorchers will host the Brisbane Heat in the Twenty20 final.

Late yesterday, all 8,500 public tickets available sold out in just 12 minutes.

Cricket Australia's new television rights deal is expected to be negotiated in the next few months.